Letters to the editor: Law is freedom to freeload

Letter writer Gino Emmi of Macomb Township (“Why do unions force us to join?”) should step back and take a deep breath and try to understand why the Unions are so upset. This law was touted by Gov. Rick Snyder as a “freedom to work.” The Unions look at it as a “freedom to freeload.” Many analogies can be sighted, but one that can hit home to Macomb County, with its many condo and homeowners associations, would be if many of the property owners simply decided to stop paying their association fees. The association still has to cut the grass and plow the snow for you, but you decided not have to pay. Would that be fair to the rest of the association members who pay their fair share? Of course it wouldn’t be, so why should workers receive better pay and benefits without paying their fair share (union dues).

An argument can be made that if you do not like the association or do not feel you getting your money’s worth, you can go live somewhere else. The same can be said for workers. If you feel so strongly about not belonging to a Union because you’re not being represented properly or that you can represent yourself better, then please go work for a nonunion shop.

No matter how you feel about this new law that was jammed through, its purpose was to destabilize the unions and defund the Democratic Party.

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There is a misleading criticism that union dues go to politicians who support organized labor. There are laws that prohibit this exact thing.

Every year, a union member must sign political action committee card to authorize the union to deduct money from his dues for funding the PACs. If these cards are not signed, then the Union cannot collect this money for these committees. Members have always had the right not to sign these cards if they did not like who the union was supporting.

The group that supports right to work is also misguided in complaining about the protesting teachers in Lansing. I ask them if their son or daughter wanted to become a teacher, would they oppose a better standard of living for them after paying off $60,000 in tuition loans. These individuals invested in their futures. Don’t they expect a return on an investment like any other 401(k)?

Some of our children interact with a teacher more than they do their parents. Like it or not, they are role models for our youth, so shouldn’t we want the best role models influencing the children in our absence? For this reason, we must stop attacking this vocation, because the good teachers will leave teaching and pursue other professions.

DENNIS MARENTETTE

St. Clair Shores

Lack of leadership in Congress

I don’t know how you feel about the lack of leadership and conviction of our lawmakers, but I find it appalling that 435 U.S. House members and 50 U.S. senators nearly failed to come to an agreement on the tax issues facing the American people.

For the last 17 months, they have known that the fiscal cliff was coming, and yet they let it go to the very end of the deadline. I’m neither a supporter of the Democrats or the Republicans, but I surely know that I will not be voting for any of the incumbents in my district in the next election.